GoBackToTexas.com Blog

Regularly updated commentary on politics from the site that has never made any bones about what it thinks Bush should do...since 2000.

Friday, January 21, 2005

Bush Offers Global Vision

That was todays headline in my local paper, the venerable San Diego Right-Wing Rag. An interesting bit of trivia: its official name is not Right-Wing Rag, I am told, but the San Diego Union Tribune. My sources tell me there also may be some questions about its venerability.

I didn't bother to read the article (learning new things from our commander in chief all the time), but I assume somewhere else in the story must have been the text "world rejects offer..." And then maybe "...offers vision of Bush on trial for war crimes."

Thursday, January 20, 2005

Been gone awhile (some time in Ohio), but mostly just gone away from politics. If there is one lesson I've learned from our courageous commander in chief, it is that sometimes, you need a vacation.

So where are we now? Over two hundred years ago, fed up with the rule of an oppressive, in-bred, incompetent dynasty (the British royal family), the colonies broke away from Britain so that they could begin a bold experiment in government which would give greater representation to the people, greater transparency to the actions of government and greater rights to all. They protected the freedom of the press, so that free dissemination of ideas would result in a well-informed populace. They trusted that an informed populace, vested with these rights and such a government, would lead to enlightened leadership, or at least, as a check on ignorant leadership. As a further safeguard, they divided power between the various branches of government.

Today, Britain is certainly less than perfect, but nevertheless certainly more transparent, more democratic, and with greater rights for its citizens than the United States. It has an enlightened populace (if we can forgive the whole Thatcherism thing), and more rights for its citizens than we do here.

In the US, the vigorous public debate a free press was supposed to bring us was severly damaged because of corporate mergers of big media. What was left, if anything, was destroyed after September 11th. Ruthless leaders took advantage of a populace in fear (and poorly informed) to maintain and expand their power. With one party in firm control of all the levers of government, the checks and balances are gone. We have an ignorant, in-bred, dynastic leader. Oh yeah, and he's related to the British royal family.